Opinions

Osama bin Laden wrote before he died that Yemen was the place where al-Qaeda had its best chance of establishing its own state — if it acted carefully and avoided alienating the local population. I suspect that bin Laden, who was something of a TV news junkie, would be encouraged and also worried by a new PBS documentary from inside the terror group’s Yemeni operations.

The unusual documentary, “Al Qaeda in Yemen,” airs Tuesday night on PBS’s “Frontline.” It is reported by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi-born journalist for the Guardian newspaper and one brave dude: As he says at the beginning of the show, “This is an organization known for kidnapping journalists, detaining them for a long time, sometimes beheading them.” So kudos to Abdul-Ahad and “Frontline” for taking viewers on a gutsy trip inside al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni branch is known.

What struck me, as I watched a preview of the show, was that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is adopting some of the harsh tactics that bin Laden warned his affiliates against, since they alienated other Muslims. The documentary includes examples of these brutal methods, and also some evidence that they are indeed turning off the very people that al-Qaeda needs as allies.

In three locations, Abdul-Ahad found examples of aggressive tactics that have helped al-Qaeda gain territory in Yemen but that also seem to be upsetting local tribesmen. To me, these vignettes seemed almost a replay of al-Qaeda’s cycle in western Iraq, where it proclaimed an emirate but burned so hot that it ended up triggering a tribal revolt:

If you’ve already done the p-Op quiz and you’re already mentally checked out for the holiday weekend, then you have plenty of time to eyeball this week’s fashion faux pas. Last week, I brought you the horror that was President Obama’s brown suit.This week, I bring you Thomas Gore’s hat.

Gore pleaded guilty to three D.C. election law misdemeanors and a federal obstruction of justice charge for his role in a twisted scheme that financed the rival of his boss to help said boss’s chances of winning election in 2010. You might know the boss as Mayor Vincent Gray (D) of the District of Columbia. Now, I know hats made a comeback in recent years. But just because it’s in fashion doesn’t mean it’s for you.

E.J. Dionne Jr.’s Outlook article about conservatism’s recent disinclination toward compromise has provoked more than 4,100 comments. Moderation, Dionne writes, has been excised from conservative political campaigns, replacing an old-fashioned conservative value of community — entailing compromise, caution and comity — with a focus on the individual.

The new conservative model, Dionne writes, is almost entirely ideological — all about less taxes, less government and not giving an inch. It’s ugly, he says, and deeply impractical. Once elected, people who are all about being anti-government have trouble reconciling that position with the need to, y’know, govern. Paralyzing gridlock results.

Predictably, our commenters agreed and disagreed, but an interesting thread arose about exactly why this paralysis is happening now. Is it a general erosion of gentility, or the Internets, or dadblamed kids today? No, many commenters contend this shift is almost overdue — an inevitable and predictable effect of the etiology and nature of conservatism itself.

This week in There’s Something Seriously Wrong With the Republican Party…

Salon has yet another defector from the party with a loud denunciation of the way it and conservative institutions are functioning. This time it’s Michael Fumento, a longtime conservative author, who just can’t handle the Limbaughs and the Coulters and the Malkins any more.

Is anyone keeping a comprehensive list of these? Andrew Sullivan counts himself , which I suppose is up for debate, along with Bruce Bartlett and David Frum. There’s also blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. Last fall we had longtime GOP congressional staffer Mike Lofgren. Who am I missing?

My daughter, my first child, was born May 1, 1979. It was the same year, the same month that Etan Patz went missing. At the time, I was living in Buffalo, N.Y., and his story dominated the news. How could it not?

A 6-year-old boy vanishes in broad daylight while doing something so routine as walking to his school bus stop. Pictures of this smiling, angelic child reinforced the horror. As a new mother, I tried to imagine what his mother and his father were feeling. I thought about how I would be bargaining with God and how, despite my best efforts, I would be going through the “what ifs.” I hoped for the happy ending that became more unlikely with each day and week. And eventually years.